Attempts to display media on computers date back to the earliest days of computing. However, little progress was made for several decades, primarily due to the high cost, limited capabilities and to a lesser extent compatibilities of available computer hardware. Recently consumer-grade personal computers have become powerful enough to display various types of media, including high quality audio and/or video.
Streaming multimedia represents one method of media distribution on the Internet. In essence streaming multimedia is multimedia that is broadcast by a streaming provider to an end-user. Generally, the term streaming specifically refers to the delivery method of the data rather than to the content. Unfortunately, streaming typically requires tremendous bandwidth and/or latency to cache the data locally. Recent advances in computer networks combined with powerful home computers and modern operating systems have made possible, i.e. practical and affordable, the near universal distribution of streaming media for ordinary consumers. Universal distribution represents multimedia that is constantly received by, and normally presented to, an end-user while it is being delivered by a streaming provider.
A stream of media can be provided on-demand or live. On demand streams are stored on a server for a long period of time, and are available to be transmitted upon receiving a user's request. Live streams may still use a server to broadcast the event, but are typically only available at one particular time, such as a live sporting event, a political debate, an educational lecture, or a concert. Live streams may be edited and converted into on demand streams for later content consumption. Current on-demand or live streams often introduce too much latency and thereby lose any possibility for constructive live feedback from the streaming targets. Essentially, live online presentations to large streaming audiences generally only provide unidirectional information in a manner that is difficult to facilitate observer participation. On demand performances are presented after the fact, preventing the presenter and/or observer(s) from directly altering the previously recorded presentation.